When You Are Lost For Words, Just Pedal

One of our maxfax patients, also named René.

Okay so I’m a little late with this week’s post…I would like to say it's because I've been so busy, but really I think it's just because I can't find the words right now. Recently I realized that being on the ship long term is far different from being on the ship short term. When you are only here for a few months, every weekend is an adventure, many nights are spent eating out and every spare moment is spent having conversations with others. But that would be entirely unsustainable in the long term, and so those who are here longer have to find a way to have a routine and some sense of normalcy. This is everyday life. How do you do that on a hospital ship in Africa? You engage in more planned activities and less spontaneous ones. You have a workout routine. You spend your lunch reading by yourself. You go to bed at the same time every night. You spend many weekends relaxing and catching up with family and doing chores. You have to find a way to have a somewhat normal life, even amongst all this craziness, because there is always stuff going on and it is easy to get burned out if you do too much. But those are just some of the ways I do it, I’m sure others have a completely different approach. I’ve also noticed that I spend far more time with other crew who are here long term. It’s not because I don’t want to get to know the short term crew, I just cross paths with them less, especially when I’m avoiding the dining room. There are around 200 long term crew onboard, with the other 200 being short termers who come and go. It’s just a different mindset.

The First Lady of Benin came and visited with some of the
patients in the ward.

Now with all that said about routine, somehow every day is still a new adventure. This week I have hosted the Managing Director of a seafood company who donates money to the ship; helped with the hosting of media at our Ponseti clinic as they filmed some training and the ‘graduation’ of students from the program; assisted with a cheque giving presentation where MTN (the local internet/cellphone provider) donated 5 million cifa to us; attended a meeting about the new ship; assisted National Geographic as they interviewed our captain, as well as patients;  and planned 4 vision trips, including a visit by our international board and founder. And that’s just the work side!

This last week or so has also included a HOPE Center dedication service, where we danced and sang to celebrate the opening of our HOPE Center; a Hebrews Bible study with an animated discussion that went on for 2 hours and would have continued if we didn’t have curfew; a visit to a local church, which had the most amazing choir and was in French (meaning I could understand!); listening to Dr.Gary talk about facial tumours, which is mindblowing; babysitting the three cutest Portuguese kids ever; a visit to the local craft and fabric markets with a girl from our small group who is visiting from the IOC; a murder mystery night at the team house, which had a 1960s cold war theme, with a murder in a British college and included double agents (I got to be a male character, complete with a fake 5 o’clock shadow); and lots of other random fun activities.

Alex, the Nat Geo producer, making
friends with some of our plastics patients.

I’ve been realizing lately how powerful words are, and that not everyone has a grasp on this concept. The idea of phrasing things positively instead of negatively (we can’t do this vs. what we can do is…). The way we can encourage, support, strengthen, and build up with words. It can be hard to teach this, but the Bible tries to explain this to us. That the tongue we praise God with should not be the same tongue that we gossip, discourage or diminish with. It also makes me grateful for The Word. For God’s Word – His ultimate truth. To have this, to be able to study it, is so special. I am thankful for all the things He reveals to us through His word, sharing things when He knows we can understand, when we won’t be too overwhelmed. It’s also ironic because I find myself struggling with my words this week. However, I know that it is not through my strengths that God is revealed but rather through my weaknesses that He shines. When I cannot do something, when I wrestle with sin, when I am weak in an area, and submit to Him, He comes in and does it in His strength, His way.

And so, I want to share a poem that Windsor shared with us recently that really touched my heart. I pray that we would all be able to trust Him fully and just pedal.

When I met Christ

it seemed as though life were rather like a bike ride,

but it was a tandem bike,

and I noticed that Christ

was in the back helping me pedal.

I don’t know just when it was

that He suggested we change places,  

but life has not been the same since.

When I had control, I knew the way,

It was rather boring, but predictable…

It was the shortest distance between two points.

But when He took the lead,

He knew delightful long cuts,

up mountains, and through rocky places

at breakneck speeds,

it was all I could do to hang on!

Even though it looked like madness,

He said, “Pedal!”

I worried and was anxious and asked,

“Where are you taking me?”

He laughed and didn’t answer,

and I started to learn to trust.

I forgot my boring life

and entered into the adventure.

And when I’d say, “I’m scared,”

He’d lean back and touch my hand.

He took me to people with gifts that I needed,

gifts of healing, acceptance, and joy.

He said, “Give the gifts away;

they’re extra baggage, too much weight.”

So I did, to the people we met,

and I found that in giving I received,

and still our burden was light.

I did not trust Him, at first,

in control of my life.

I thought He’d wreck it;

but He knows bike secrets,

knows how to make it bend to take sharp corners,

knows how to jump to clear high rocks,

knows how to fly to shorten scary passages.

And I am learning to shut up and pedal

in the strangest places,

and I’m beginning to enjoy the view

and the cool breeze on my face

with my delightful constant companion, Jesus Christ.

And when I’m sure I just can’t do anymore,

He just smiles and says… “Pedal.”

-          Author Unknown

Our surgeons hard at work! On a side note, Timmy, who took many of these pictures, left yesterday, but he will be back in January to continue capturing these beautiful moments. I love that people are so moved by our work here that they choose to keep coming back :)

One Week of Surgery Complete, Many More To Go

This past week, surgeries began and now 45 people have had amazing, life-changing surgeries. Some patients - like a young woman named Monique who had a small tumour growing behind her ear - have already healed and been discharged. She was very happy and even stayed later on Friday to do the interview we had asked her to do (the journalist was running late). Some patients - like Valentin who had a burn contracture around his middle and was our first patient of the field service - are still here, continuing to heal. One little baby was admitted just so that we could help to fatten her up – she is 2 months old and weighs 4 pounds – so our dieticians are working with her mom to help her gain weight. They said the mom has been working very hard to get the baby to eat anything (she has a cleft lip & palate) and it’s always encouraging to hear about how much love moms have for their children. Some patients – like Julien, the man with the large tumour growing out of his jaw/mouth – are having surgery right now.

Nat Geo interviewing Dr.Tertius on Deck 7.

The people in this place consistently go above and beyond anything that is expected. The OR team didn’t finish until late on Friday and so some of them were in there on Saturday cleaning up, sterilizing and preparing for Monday. The admission team lead wrote a letter for a patient’s mom saying that Mercy Ships requires a caregiver to stay with all patients under 18 and so she wouldn’t be able to go to work for a while because her son was having surgery and she needed to stay with him. Much of the engine room team worked on the weekend because we had some issues with the generators that needed to be fixed (something about governors not working…I don’t understand these things). Our hospitality team worked hard on Friday afternoon to set up the Queens lounge for the visit by the First Lady, and the crew endured not being able to use the room for 24 hours. Our HR Director brought up homemade coffee to the Nat Geo crew on Saturday as they were preparing for an interview with Dr. Tertius (and the coffee got used as a prop for the interview). One of our dining room team leads was working hard serving us breakfast and then ran upstairs to lead us in worship before our Monday morning meeting (still wearing his lovely uniform). One of our lab techs worked on Saturday to ensure that all the necessary tests had been completed for Monday. I say this not to show that we are always working, but rather to show the amount of love that the people on this ship have for others. They are always thinking about the little things, like a visiting guest from the IOC (who also trained us during Basic Training), making the whole ship his delicious cookies several times over the last week or so. There is nothing quite like warm chocolate chip cookies!

Rodrigue interviewing our Managing Director in his office.

This was another hectic week – I hosted a radio journalist on Monday and Friday, and was a little surprised when many of the day crew greeted him by name. They recognized him from TV or radio. It seems that he is pretty well known locally. That was a new experience for me. He also recorded me giving him a tour of the whole ship in French, which was so nerve wracking, but I survived and was helped by some of our lovely French speaking African crew. The patients and day crew were excited to see him and many gathered around to be able to share their stories. It’s pretty remarkable to hear day crew tell him that what we are doing here is really good, and that we take such good care of people and that the most important thing they want people to know is to have hope! We also hosted a large group of people from the American Embassy and I gave a tour of the ship to the U.S. Ambassador (which I thought was hilarious considering how many Americans we have on board). It was wonderful to be able to give a tour in English and share many of the amazing stories I have heard, and to see how touched they were by everything we are doing here. I feel very blessed to have this job because sitting in on interviews means I often get to hear the most wonderful stories. This week it was listening to patients share their stories of healing with the radio journalist, and listening to Dr.Tertius (our plastics surgeon) share his story with Nat Geo. It’s pretty amazing, all the work he is doing. He spends 10 months of the year away from home, away from his wife, doing the work that God has called him to. He works with other NGOs when he is not with Mercy Ships, and also tries to raise awareness about the need for access to safe surgery for much of the world’s population.

From right to left: Our Managing Director, Robin; the U.S.
amabassador, Lucy; Laurette, Robin's wife; Lucy's husband.

This week has also been full of emotional growing pains as I work out what it means to be vulnerable. Now that I have been made aware of a lot of the false thinking I had, and the idol I had built around being strong, unemotional and not caring what others thought, it’s been hard to find that balance. How to care but not be destroyed by the littlest things? Who exactly am I without those things, without those walls? How am I to behave, how much do I share? I always thought that the goal was to reach a point where I didn’t care what others thought of me, but now I’m realizing that that is the very thing that has impeded me from having deep and meaningful connection with others. I realized I often only share completely processed thoughts, but there is something to be said for sharing raw emotion, or raw unprocessed feelings, allowing room for the input of others, before having it all figured out. The other side of that vulnerability is understanding that I need others. That seems to be pretty obvious, yet still a hard thing for me to admit. That I do need others, that I need others to encourage me and pour into me, the way I pour into them. I think I felt like, I should be sufficiently filled up by God to be able to constantly pour out into others, but someone pointed out that often God uses people to fill us up. I am so grateful that He has brought people into my life to share wisdom when I need it. This kind of emotional growing has been painful at times but I know I will be stronger for it, and hopefully closer to the woman God wants me to be.

The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. ~ Deuteronomy 31:8

Three of the beautiful children who will be having orthopedic surgery to fix their club feet.

Surgeon Screenings, Partners Reception & Off Road Adventures

This morning they talked about how we’ve been here for a little over three weeks now, but really it feels like months, and it’s true! It feels like we have been in Benin for a long, long while and yet last night we had our first patients arrive onboard. Today is the first day of surgeries. It blows my mind to think that as I sit here and write this, two decks below me, lives are being transformed. Medical marvels, magical transformations, lives restored, hope given. What a unique place to call home. During last night’s service, we all went out across the ship to pray for different areas and departments, and especially for our patients and the surgeons, nurses and anesthetists who would be involved in their operations. Everything we do is done as a community.

Julien (who I mentioned in my newsletter), came to the ship
for his surgical screening, hiding his tumour with a pink scarf.

This week we had surgeon screenings on the dock, where the surgeon sees if they can operate on the patient. The admissions team also runs tests on the patients if necessary. They had surgeon screenings for plastics, general and maxfax this week, as all three of those surgeons are here. They also had surgical evaluations, which was where patients that we treated in 2009 (when we were last here), came back to visit us. It helps the surgeons to see how the patients look 6 years later, if they could improve their methods, how various treatments lasted as the patient grew up, etc. I love that we are able to have this kind of follow up and to show our patients that we truly care about them and how they are doing. On top of all this, screening was still going on at our offsite location. It seems like our radio advertisements must have worked at least a little because we seemed to get more plastics patients, which is what we were looking for. We typically only perform plastic surgery to help with mobility (ie. To be able to move all their fingers, or bend their arm properly), rather than appearance, and a lot of the patients we were seeing had very good mobility. It seems that their burns were treated fairly well, which is encouraging to know that the burn unit at the local hospital is doing a good job. Dr.Gary mentioned in his speech at the partners reception that he has seen a huge improvement, which is very encouraging. 

The Minister of Health shaking hands with our Managing
Director - he came to visit our screening centre.

The comms team has been busy keeping up with the patients they want to follow and identifying everyone they met at screening. We were also in charge of all the name tags, videos and banners for the partners reception that occurred on Thursday – the ship invites all its partners in the country, to welcome them aboard the ship. It was a very formal affair, with several ministers, and many partners from NGOs, businesses, embassies, and hospitals. The comms ladies were dressed all in black at the bottom of the gangway and got to be the first smiling faces to greet them and welcome them aboard. I also helped to host a tour of some of the officials in French (hopefully i’m getting better with all this practice!). Nat Geo has also been very busy, following many, many patients, doing home visits, and filming the hospital getting ready. 

Never a dull moment with these beauties!

Some of the best moments have been the random, unexpected ones. Tuesday was one of those nights. A group of us had a crossfit session led by ‘Coach Mike’, where I remembered how fun it is to train as a team. We then had an improv lesson from Anna, which I wasn’t even planning on doing, but then participated in last minute and actually really enjoyed! She is an awesome teacher and it was hilarious. We then headed over to our boss’s office and proceeded to fill it with balloons and have a dance party in there as we decorated it for her birthday. It was a wonderful, unplanned evening that led to all kind of team bonding and laughs. Saturday we got to attend a wedding - two crew members who are from West Africa were getting married and they invited most of the ship. We attended the civil service in the morning, which was proceeded over by the mayor and started an hour late, and then headed to the church service. It was nice to see them get married, and definitely an interesting experience.

On the back roads of Benin.

On Sunday, we had a slightly more planned adventure, which ended up being so much fun. I have been wanting to go for a drive up north and explore, so I found a forest about 2 hours north of Cotonou and decided that was where we would go. Thankfully, I am surrounded by the best people and found 8 people willing to trust me and come along! So we all crammed in a car and headed off, eventually finding the bumpy dirt road that I had highlighted on my black and white satellite map of the area (Kat thought this was hilarious). The road didn’t even show up on Google Maps, and when I saw it I understood why – it was more of a path, barely enough room for the car. But we made it! We proceeded to wander around the forest, no path, no destination, just wandering, until we finally did intersect with a path. We all took turns pretending we were the tour guide and knew things about the forest. We followed the path until we found a village, where we had a very interesting experience. One of their men approached the tallest guy in our group (Michael) and proceeded to try and convince him to marry off the girls in our group. It was hilarious (especially since I was the only one who spoke French), but soon a large crowd started to form so we decided we should go. One person mentioned, it’s like walking into an area where no Western rules exist – they have their own cultural rules and we have no idea what those are, and due to the language barrier, it makes it hard to find out, which is why we are so uncomfortable at times. Our car rides were filled with laughter and loud singing to the randomest songs (Avril Lavigne anyone?). It was one of those perfect days where you can’t help but marvel at creation; be thankful for blessings like landcruisers and cookies; be struck by how differently we live from the people we met; be in awe at how music transcends countries and languages; and realize how much you love every single one of the people you are with.

Someone had these for sale -
A little taste of home!

There have been times this week that I have been overwhelmed with the amount of work to be done, and way too focused on the little things, and I think God has an amazing way of bringing us back to those things that are truly important. He refreshes us constantly. In one of Pastor Tim’s sermons recently, he talks about the Holy Spirit, and that he isn’t there just to give us an extra push when we are struggling to open the jar of peanut butter. The Holy Spirit is there to help us do the things we could never do on our own. That really stuck with me. All of the things that this ship does, all of the things that I do, they aren’t things I could accomplish on my own – but with His help, we are able to do amazing, life giving things. On Sunday, one of our chaplains, Diana, shared a quote with us that said we don’t pray to impress or inform God, but rather to invite Him in. I had to really think about that. How often do I stop and invite God into what I am doing? Not often. I am so focused on just doing it. Most likely, the reason I am getting overwhelmed with the little things is because I am trying to do it all on my own strength, rather than on His. I think that’s what makes this place so unique, is that we live in a community filled with people who are inviting God into everything they do. This morning, before he went down to perform the first surgery, Dr.Gary went on the overhead speaker and asked us to pray with him. He knows that if we invite the Holy Spirit in, if we allow God to work through us, we will bring His kingdom to earth. I pray that I would learn to invite God into everything I do and that as a community we would proclaim that He is welcome in this place.

This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ~ Romans 3:22-24 

[NIV notes: glory of God=what God intended humans to be]

Our nurses are ready for the patients to arrive!

Hitting the Ground Running in Benin

A before/after of one of the wards.

Ever since we’ve arrived in Benin, it’s been full speed ahead for every department. The IT department set up our new high speed internet and have been trying to get all the local cell phones working (for those whose jobs require it), and this is on top of all the regular work they have. The supply department has been unloading numerous containers, which have all the supplies we need to get underway for the field service. This week they also unloaded the container that had the stuff we shipped from Texas – we all were pretty excited to get the goodies that we had shipped ourselves. The hospital team has been busy unpacking and cleaning the wards, getting them ready for patients, while the OR team has been unpacking the operating rooms and sterilizing them. They have both had the added dimension of having Nat Geo filming them as they do this (who knew cleaning was so exciting?). Starting tomorrow, the day crew will be coming on board for some extensive training because the hospital officially opens in one week, and surgeries start on Sept.12^th. 

The tents are set up and ready to go.

The transportation team had several busy days when we first got here as they tried to get the cars all ready to go before screening started. They were stuck because of the typical bureaucratic issues, but apparently the First Lady heard about this and called the appropriate department and got them to come in on a Saturday to make sure we got all our plates. What a gift – I love how involved and invested the government is in our mission. Other departments have been helping to set up the tents outside (admissions, rehab, screening, outpatient). A lot of this was done by a Mercy team – these are basically groups that come as part of a short term mission trip. From my understanding, a team always comes to help us set up when we first arrive in a country. They were only here for two weeks, but they accomplished so much! Our HOPE Center (off ship hotel for patients) team has also been hard at work setting up and getting everything ready for patients to arrive. This year the HOPE Center is half the size of the one in Madagascar (120 beds) because many patients live close enough to go home in between appointments (once they have been discharged). We also had a Captain handover the other week – Captain Jon Fadely, who sailed us from Durban to Cape Town to Cotonou, handed over to Captain John Borrow, who will be our Captain for the entire field service. It was a great moment as we got to celebrate both of these remarkable men. 

A shot of the screening line - it stretches far into the distance.

And of course, the screening team has been extremely busy over the past few weeks. This week, they decided to take a new approach to screening. On Monday, they let in everyone who was waiting outside, around 1000 people and pre-screened all of them. They had a better idea of what they were looking for now, so rather than spend 2 minutes with each person, they spent 15 seconds with each of them. Around 350 people got yes’s at this point and headed inside for the screening portion. It was a long day for the team but they were able to completely clear the line so that no one was left sleeping outside. The rest of the week they still had several hundred people and maintained the same strategy, of letting everyone inside. They have been working incredibly hard to make all of this happen, and next week the team will be split in half as surgeon screenings begin on the dock, while regular screening continues out in town. Pray that they would have the strength and endurance to finish the task at hand! 

Some of the patients who have made it past pre-screening,
waiting to see a nurse.

As for the Comms team, we’ve been busy as well trying to document everything that has been happening. On Wednesday, Tiffany, Michele and I were able to visit the U.S. Embassy in Cotonou (Tiffany was pretty happy to spend an hour on U.S. soil!). We met with their Public Affairs team and they were very helpful, giving us an idea of what the media landscape is like here, allowing us to leverage their contacts to get the word out about screening, and even giving us a tour. On Friday, we helped to host a last minute visit by the Minister of Health and representatives from the WHO, UNICEF and various other NGO’s. The group (along with about 10 members of the media), visited the screening center and then came to the ship for a tour. Mix in screening, helping with Nat Geo and processing pictures, and that makes for a busy week. 

Our transportation team worked hard all weekend
to ensure the cars were ready in time for screening.

One neat thing has been seeing the ‘finished product’. Every week, the writers and photographers work on something called the weekly scoop, which compiles the best pictures and stories from the week and sends them out to the national offices. This is where they get all their material for Instagram and Facebook. It has been really cool to see all these pictures published by the various offices and shared many times over, especially because for many of the pictures, I was there, I know their names and their stories. There is something special about knowing the story behind every picture – I love being part of this amazingly talented team! We’ve also been able to watch many of the local news stories that have aired about Mercy Ships and that we got to host at the screening center. On top of that, the Danish team from TV2 BIGGEST program that I hosted a few months ago, just aired their program. I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet (it’s all in Danish…), but the producer told us it’s the best thing he has ever produced and that it still moves him to tears. I love seeing the way God uses this place to touch people’s hearts.

While it has been very busy, there has still been time for conversations where you laugh so hard it hurts; being victorious at board games; playing rugby/volleyball/frisbee on the dock; community worship of our amazing God; off ship dinner at a Thai place; swimming in the pool (and getting sunburnt); ice cream and profound conversations. I am so thankful for each and every person on this ship – what an amazing community we get to be a part of. I am also grateful that God has continued His work in me, breaking down the false images I have of myself, and showing me once again that I am His beautiful, wonderfully made daughter. His ways are good – He continues to reveal things to me, one piece at a time, knowing how much I can handle at once. This current season is for being – being with God, being with others, being truly seen, just showing up and being. The Holy Spirit is teaching me the difference between using vulnerability and being vulnerable. I’m a work in progress – we all are – but I love that our God cares so much about each of us that He continues to shape and mold us into the people that He intended for us to be.

 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. ~ Hebrews 3:13-14

Timmy and I wandered down into the village that is just a few minutes away from the screening center, where it seems that
they make most of their livelihood off of the water. This is just one of the amazing moments that he captured. This is what
he had to say: It's a wonderful and humbling moment when you find yourself remembering that we really are no different at all. All it took was a smile from a stranger in a country where I don't speak the language; I suddenly felt welcome. I was reminded that underneath the worries of the world and the illusion of separation, we all - on a fundamental level - want to laugh and feel joy, to love and be loved, and to be acknowledged as part of this human experience we've all been thrown into headfirst - something we all too often forget. Can't put it any better than that! PC: Timmy Baskerville.